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Government advisers have warned that failure to increase rail capacity between Birmingham and Manchester in the wake of HS2’s abolition risks undermining economic growth and leveling northern cities.
Rishi Sunak scrapped the northern section of the high-speed rail network last year, redirecting the £36bn earmarked for it to hundreds of transport schemes across the UK.
But the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has warned that scrapping the new railway without adding additional capacity will hurt economic growth in Britain’s second and third largest cities.
Sir John Armitt, chairman of the commission, said: “We want more people to travel between Birmingham and Manchester, so unless we add additional transport capacity, we’re going to have to slow that growth down. “It will restrict transportation capacity.” The overall purpose of interconnection between our cities.
He further added: “We are not saying that HS2 Phase 2A needs to be reinstated, but we are saying that capacity constraints cannot be ignored and we need to consider different ways in which that capacity can be improved. “There is.” in the future. Otherwise, we risk missing out on the benefits of the UK’s economic growth and increased levels of economic activity. ”
Sir John said the UK was the only country in Europe where productivity in its second and third largest cities was below the national average.
Concerns over rail capacity came as the NIC warned that the window to deliver infrastructure to improve people’s lives, boost growth and tackle climate change was closing.
The group said there were “serious deficiencies” in Britain’s infrastructure, including failures to build reservoirs, too many homes at risk of flooding and a lack of investment in local transport.
Sir John added that now was a critical time to make decisions on issues of pressing concern to the public, which he characterized as the three P’s: “prices, potholes and pollution”.
Governments need to increase public investment in infrastructure and encourage private investment, but globally competitive markets require stable policies to attract investors, the committee argued.
Ministers need to make faster decisions and commit to it over the long term, with strong implementation plans and action to remove barriers that slow infrastructure delivery and increase costs.
It warns that public funding will need to reach around £30bn a year in the coming decades, up from around £20bn a year in the past decade, while private investment will need to rise to around £50bn a year. There is.
In its annual progress review, the advisory body said the government has been facing disruption for several years from shocks such as the pandemic and the energy crisis.
Moving away from gas heating is essential not only to reduce carbon emissions in homes, but also to improve air quality and permanently reduce home heating costs, the report says.
Heat pumps are the solution to reducing emissions from most homes, but the government is still falling short of plans to install 600,000 clean heating systems a year by 2028.
Last-minute policy changes on heating have reduced the incentive for people to install heat pumps, while uncertainty over the role of hydrogen is also helping to slow the transition away from fossil fuel heating.